Table of contents

22. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. LEONARD, LEICESTER.

According to Henry of Knighton, the founder
of the Hospital of St. Leonard at Leicester was
William the Leper, son of Robert ès Blanchemains, Earl of Leicester. (fn. 1) Knighton wrote long
after the hospital's foundation, but he may well
have had reliable information about the origins of
an institution which stood close to the abbey where
he was himself a canon. It is not known what the
original endowment of the hospital was Simon
de Montfort granted to it an annual rent from the
honour of Leicester, and in exchange the hospital
gave up its rights to a revenue of £3 previously
paid to it from the bailiwick of Hinckley. (fn. 2) As
Hinckley formed part of the honour of Leicester, (fn. 3)
a rent from it may have been granted by William
of Breteuil, the eldest son of an Earl of Leicester.
In 1308 a licence was granted to the Earl of
Lancaster to alienate to St. Leonard's 3 messuages,
with 4 acres and 1 rood of meadow. (fn. 4) The king,
in 1330, granted his protection to the masters and
brethren of the hospital, collecting alms. (fn. 5) In the
next year- Philip Danet granted to the hospital
5 messuages and 7½ virgates in Whetstone, Croft,
and Frisby by Galby (Leics.), in return for which
the hospital was to maintain a chaplain to celebrate
masses in St. Clement's church, Leicester, for
the souls of Philip and others. (fn. 6)

There were both brothers and sisters at St.
Leonard's Hospital, at least in the 14th century. (fn. 7)
They were under the control of a master, who
wore a black habit bearing a red crescent and
star, (fn. 8) but it is not known whether they lived under
any rule. The hospital is said to have been founded
to succour lepers, (fn. 9) but there is no evidence for
this statement. Under the terms of an agreement
of March 1396-7 for free access to the parish
church of St. Leonard, which was probably
adjacent to the hospital, the master of the hospital
paid a yearly rent of 10s. to the Abbot and convent
of Leicester, to whom the parish church was
appropriated. (fn. 10) The Abbot of Leicester visited
the hospital in 1397, and again in 1406. (fn. 11)

In or before 1472 St. Leonard's Hospital was
bought from the king (fn. 12) by William, Lord Hastings,
who granted it to the College of the Newarke at
Leicester. (fn. 13) The hospital apparently continued to
exist, as in 1491 it was under the supervision of the
college's treasurer. (fn. 14) When the College of the
Newarke was suppressed under Edward VI's
Act for the Dissolution of Chantries, St. Leonard's
Hospital presumably shared its fate. (fn. 15)

A 12th-century seal (fn. 25) of the hospital is a very
large vesica, 3 by 1¾ in., showing St. Leonard,
abbot, seated and blessing. The legend is broken
away.

Another of the hospital's seals, (fn. 26) of the 15th
century, is 2½ by 1 9 / 16 in. It shows a full-length
figure of St. Leonard standing in a niche, holding
fetters in his right hand and a crosier in his left.
Below is a priest in prayer. The legend reads:

12. The patronage of the hosp. was by 1445 in the
hands of the D. of Lanc. (R. Somerville, 'D. of Lanc.
Presentations, 1399-1485', Bull. Inst. Hist. Research,
xviii, 75) to which many of the lands of the earls of
Leicester had passed (E.H.R. liv, 396-9).

13. Cal. of Chart, and Other Doc. Belonging to the
Hosp. of Wm. Wyggeston at Leic., ed. A. Hamilton
Thompson, 89. In 1465 the next presentation to the
mastership of the hosp. was granted to Hastings: Bull.
Inst. Hist. Research, xviii, 75.

14. Hamilton Thompson, Hist, of the Hosp. of the
Annunciation in the Newarke, 131.

15. The 'messuage called Saynt Leonarde's' granted
away in 1550 (Cal. Pat., 1549-51,122) may have been
St. Leonard's Hosp.

20. Bull. Inst. Hist. Research, xviii, 75. A grant,
dated 1461, of the custody of the hosp., void by Matfeyn's death, to John Walter occurs on the Pat. R.
(Cal. Pat., 1461-7, 46), but this entry does not agree
with the continuous series of presentations recorded in
the D. of Lanc, rec., the evidence of which has been
preferred here.